Milestones

By Tam Gray, Anita Hamilton, Janice Horowitz, Nadya Labi, Michael Lemonick, Michele Orecklin, Joshua Quittner, Noah Robischon and Alain Sanders

MARRIED. HELEN MIRREN, 51, a very modern Miss Marple, whose detective work on Prime Suspect won her an Emmy, and TAYLOR HACKFORD, 53, her longtime companion and director of Dolores Claiborne; near Inverness, Scotland.

RETIRED. MARV LEVY, 72, courtly N.F.L. coach of the Buffalo Bills; after a 12-year run that included four infamous Super Bowl losses; in Orchard Park, N.Y.

DIED. DAWN STEEL, 51, brash, market-savvy studio chief; of a brain tumor; in Los Angeles. In her merchandising days at Penthouse, Steel learned to recognize a hot product, whether it was a phallic amaryllis plant, Gucci-labeled toilet paper (her own invention) or, later at Paramount, a movie like Flashdance or Top Gun. She was fired while giving birth to her daughter, but rebounded in true celluloid style, becoming the first woman to head a major studio: Columbia Pictures.

DIED. DAVID SCHRAMM, 52, bold, influential astrophysicist whose studies of dark matter shed new light on the birth of the universe; after crashing his two-engine plane near Denver.

DIED. DENISE LEVERTOV, 74, activist-poet who meditated on the politics of the household and state, writing such fierce antiwar collections as To Stay Alive; of lymphoma; in Seattle.

DIED. TOSHIRO MIFUNE, 77, rugged actor in epic Japanese films; in Mitaka, Japan. In his 16-film collaboration with director Akira Kurosawa, Mifune came to embody the heroic, archetypical loner with his rough features and angry intensity. America had cowboys; Japan had Mifune, wielding a sword and his trademark glare in the Oscar-winning Rashomon, The Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. Although Mifune often played the Pacific enemy in American films like Midway (1976), his menace needed no translation. It was his Japanese films that stuck with audiences, inspiring such imitators as Clint Eastwood and even Jim Belushi.

DIED. BRENDAN GILL, 83, urbane man of letters; in the city he campaigned to preserve, New York. A generalist of wide-ranging talents, Gill began and ended his career at the New Yorker, alternating as a columnist and critic--of architecture and just about everything else. He wrote poetry, novels (The Trouble of One House), plays (La Belle), biographies (of Cole Porter and Frank Lloyd Wright) and even a best seller: Here at "The New Yorker."

DIED. HELEN WILLS MOODY (ROARK), 92, imperturbable tennis ace; in Carmel, Calif. Her trademark white eyeshade set an enduring fashion trend, but there was nothing frivolous about Little Miss Poker Face, as she was known. She stood her ground like a tank, drilling out bullet serves and powerful baseline drives. Her casualties were legion: she won 31 major championships, including eight at Wimbledon, and her frequent rival Helen Jacobs was dubbed "Helen the Second."